Bruce Schwack, Director of Communications, Netmeds.com
Although the Indian healthcare space is yet to embrace IT and telecom solutions in a big way, the industry has started realising the potential benefits that these solutions promise in terms of quality service delivery and operational efficiency. Going forward, m-health and telemedicine can transform the healthcare situation, especially in remote areas. Enterprises operating in this space talk about the emerging IT trends, the current status of adoption of the latest technologies and the future outlook…
How have the information and communications technology (ICT) requirements for the healthcare sector changed in recent years?
The key IT solution that has been deployed by healthcare enterprises is electronic health records (EHR). About 18 months ago, the prime minister too had declared that it is essential for every Indian to enjoy the benefits of EHR.
At Netmeds, we have just launched Healthmemo, our own highly refined EHR. We have also released its corporate version, Medmemo, a combined EHR and online pharmacy application with a one-touch capability for corporates to easily access medicines and file their annual me-dical reimbursements to the human resources department seamlessly.
What are the key challenges in the adoption of telemedicine and m-health in the Indian market? How are these segments expected to evolve going forward?
The greatest challenge is the formulation of a mass database to which everyone can input data and which will be accessible to all providers. However, today, even some hospitals within the same chain do not share their information.
M-health is a tool that empowers everyone with a smartphone to play an active role in their own healthcare management. With wide access to doctors through telemedicine apps, and a number of legitimate online and brick-and-mortar pharmacies all supplying medicines, it is essential that all providers upload prescriptions, reports, test results in real time so that patients and providers alike have access to the most current patient history.
What are some of the IT initiatives taken by your organisation? What are the resulting advantages for the company?
Our entire business is IT-based. We have literally invented the online pharmacy business, from the concept of using WhatsApp, allowing patients to upload prescriptions, to employing a staff of highly skilled pharmacists capable of discerning and then digitising the details of a handwritten prescription. Deploying these strategies has allowed us to not only grow to more than a million customers in less than 18 months, it has also given us access to comprehensive database that was not accessible before. With more than 500,000 prescriptions in hand, we probably have more detailed information about actual pharmaceutical consumers, based on the prescriptions written, than has been known ever before.
What are the key IT and telecom-related challenges faced by healthcare enterprises? How can these be resolved?
Being diligent about data security is always one of the key drivers in any enterprise, but in healthcare, there are even greater privacy issues involved.
What are the key technology trends likely to be witnessed by the healthcare industry in the next few years?
Certainly, big data will play the biggest role in the healthcare industry. The accumulation and assessment of data will lead to a new era of predictive medicines, wherein healthcare providers and managers can manage a patient’s disease onset before it strikes. This could lead to an overall brighter picture for national healthcare and perhaps even a less expensive future cost burden for the nation and the patient. Like the old adage says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
